How we do it

There are several plots currently under development. One in Shire Oak Primary School, one behind the Natural Food Store on North Lane and one near St Chad's in Far Headingley. We are just getting going with the most ambitious development so far - the creation of a community orchard around  the war memorial in Far Headingley (again near St Chad's parish centre). This project is in partnership with Leeds City Council and Wade's Charity.

If we can't beg or borrow what we need, we have to find money for things like fence posts, trees, stakes, and a first aid kit. We rely on membership fees and donations to fund these materials.

Shire Oak School

Shire Oak Primary School: the children already have an interest in trees and the environment. We prepared the beds in the late summer 2010 with a view to planting trees and soft fruit in the autumn when the new school year was under way.

On October 21st children in Year 5 planted some trees, some strawberries and some bulbs.

Bush trees:        Plum  'Marjories' Seedling'        
                        Cherry 'Stella'

Fan trained Cherry:    'Early Rivers'
Pear (espalier )          'Williams Bon Cretien'

Cordon Apples:    'Egremont Russet'
                          'Red Falstaff'
                          'Meridian'

The Natural Food Store

The other planted plot is at the back of the Natural Food Store. We've planted:

Raspberry 'Glen Ample'         x 10 canes
Cherry  'Cherokee'                x1  to be fan trained on post and wires.
Apple  'Lord Derby'                x1 to be fan trained on post and wires.


Details about varieties.
Glen Ample'
Delicious, large fruit produced in mid-summer on this extremely heavy-yielding summer cultivar with vigorous, upright, spine-free canes. The berries are produced on long, upright stems, making picking easy.
(ref : www.rhs.org.uk)

 Cherry  'Cherokee'
A sweet cherry, ready to pick from early July. Produces large dark red cherries, which become near black as they ripen.
Large, good flavoured cherry; vigorous tree which produces heavy crops with good split resistance; recent variety from a Van/Stella cross raised in British Columbia.
(ref : www.rvroger.co.uk )


Apple  'Lord Derby'
Cooking Apple.
Pick in October, ready to use October / November
A very prolific late culinary apple, raised in 1862, which has many attributes - the grass-green fruit have a fine flavour and stay intact when cooked; the tree is very hardy and suitable for the North; good resistance to scab and succeeds well on wet soils. Thin the fruit in June for the best sized apples.

St Chad's

At the end of March we planted 9 trees on the perimeter of the field behind St Chad's Parish Centre (to join the self-seeded plum that is already there): 2 pears (Williams Bon Cretien and Conference), a Victoria plum; 3 dessert apple varieties (Egremont Russet; Claygate Permain and Ashmeads Kernel) and 3 cooking apples (Lane's Prince Albert; Newton Wonder; and Bramleys Seedling).

War Memorial site

The area around the war memorial in Far Headingley is being developed as a memorial orchard, with a variety of fruit trees and some seating.

After detailed discussions with Wades Charity and Leeds City Council, work got under way here in October 2011. The first task was to dig holes and prepare the ground for the trees.

Members of the Far Headingley Village Society got involved and were particularly helpful in tackling the long border.

Varieties we will plant on this site

APPLES

Annie Elizabeth (culinary)
Annie Elizabeth is an old-fashioned English cooking apple, possibly a seedling of Blenheim Orange, which it resembles in shape and size, and also in its relatively sweet flavour.

Ashmead's Kernel - Dessert
Ashmeads Kernel has remained popular for well over 2 centuries, and with good reason: it has a distinctive flavour which is quite different from most other varieties. Tasters rarely agree on exactly what the elusive flavour reminds them of, but pear drops is probably close.

Balsam (culinary)
According to Robert Hogg, writing at the end of the 19th century, Green Balsam is a variety known only in the northern parts of the county of North Yorkshire, where it is very popular.  It was commonly known as the Farmer's Wife's apple, a testament no doubt to its culinary uses.

Discovery - Dessert
Discovery is a bit like Beaujolais Noveau - its appeal is entirely down to being fresh and new. The colours are a fresh yellow-green, usually with dark red patches where the sun has caught it.

Howgate Wonder (culinary)
A very large apple that can be quite sweet and pleasant when eaten fresh but basically it is a cooking apple. Red flush

Jumbo (culinary)
Triploid vigorous tree, good keeper

Katy - Dessert
Katy is an attractive medium-sized apple, usually bright red in colour over a light green yellow background.  The flesh is a pale cream colour, and on the softer side of crunchy.  Katy is usually a very juicy, and when fresh from the tree the juice goes everywhere as you bite into it. It has a fairly mild apple flavour, a bit of refreshing acidity, and in a good year a hint of strawberry.

King of the Pippins
The main attraction of King of the Pippins today is its versatility.  It can be used as a dessert apple but also has many culinary uses.  It keeps its shape when cooked and brings an authentic old-fashioned flavour.  The sweet-sharp juice is also useful for making fresh apple juice and in cider-making.

Lucombe's Pine - Dessert
Rich aromatic pineapple flavour, Yellow apple with russet flecks

Red Devil - Dessert
Red Devil is a mid-season apple, notable for its distinctive red flesh.

Ribston Pippin - Dessert
M25 standard.: To be grown as a standard tree. Triploid with moderate growth. Old Yorkshire Variety

Winter Cockpit (culinary)
Sweet sharp flavour. Related to an old Yorkshire variety  'Yorkshire Cockpit'

Winter Gem - Dessert
Good quality late dessert apple, with pink flushed fruit, which keep well. Aromatic with crisp and juicy flesh.

CHERRIES

Stella
Fruit: large size/deep red skin, introduced in 1968. Sweet, juicy cherry; reliable and heavy cropping; the first self-fertile variety raised in Canada from a Lambert/JI2420 cross; a good pollinator for other cherries; winner of an RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Sweetheart
Fruit: medium size/bright red skin, introduced in 1944. One of the latest ripening sweet cherries; heart-shaped fruit with a pleasant sweet flavour with a refreshingly acidic undertone; a Van/Newstar cross; a vigorous, self-fertile variety from British Columbia which has good resistance to brown rot.

Vega
Fruit: very large size/white skin, introduced in 1967. Very large, white cherry of exhibition quality with a suberb flavour; can be pollinated by Lapins or Stella ; a recent variety from Ontario.

PLUM

Concorde
Pick: October; use: November - December. A cross between Conference and Doyenne de Comice raised at East Malling in 1977, this relatively recent introduction has already met with widespread acclaim - heavy crops of pale yellow russeted fruit with a lovely sweet buttery flavour

current working party dates

Any time between 10 and 2 on

Sunday 6th November

This is at the war memorial site - bring a fork or spade if you can!